The Mara
by chrino
Summary: Hiccup wakes up from a dreadful nightmare, expecting to see the creature that had caused it. How come he then saw no one else but his trusted dragon sleeping peacefully on his stoneslab? Oneshot.


Hi! First HTTYD story, but not my first time here. Just wanted to share with you this little story that came to me from some research I've been doing on old folk beliefs.

I don't own the books or the movie, nothing, sip, zero, nada! A'ight?

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Hiccup shot up from his bed, sweating badly and heaving for breath. Panicked he looked around the room to see what it was that had woken him. He saw nothing, partly because of the darkness. He only saw the silhouette of his trusted dragon Toothless curled up on his stone. The sound of his deep even breathing calmed Hiccup down instantly, though his heart kept racing at an incredible speed.

The dream was rapidly slipping away from his mind, but he could still feel the fear and anxiety from it. He did remember bits and pieces of it. The big fight against the Red Death, but twisted beyond recognition. The Red Death had broken out from the mountain and made its way to the isle of Berk. It had created havoc, caused big destruction, and deaths, lots and lots of deaths, mostly the Berkians, but also some dragons. Hiccup and Toothless had fought bravely, or in Hiccup's case, desperation and frustration and hate, and the great dragon had once more fallen to its death. Once more its tail had hit Hiccup and Toothless as they flew at great speed to escape the flames licking its way up the huge dragon. Only this time it was Toothless that was knocked out and the frightened boy could only watch as both he and his most trusted friend fell down, down, down...

"No, stop this," Hiccup reprimanded himself. "It was only a dream, just a mare's dream, nothing more."

It wasn't that long since the defeat of the Red Death and the loss of his left foot – at least it didn't feel like it. Most evenings were spent with pain, partly the stump and partly the phantom pains. Hiccup still believed that his leg was still whole and that he could wriggle his toes. It was a strange feeling. The pain had been worse lately since he'd begun to start using his prosthetic to do some walking exercises. Never had he thought that he would have to relearn how to walk at the age of 14.

Because of Hiccup exhausting himself everyday he could sleep through most of the nights, though he still woke up because of his leg. And strangely enough, he didn't seem to be getting too many bad dreams either.

Everyone knew that bad dreams were caused by the Mara, a creature often the shape of a beautiful woman, which made its way through bolted doors and closed windows to sit or lay upon a person, creating horrible dreams and not leaving until one woke up and either screamed or cursed it in the name of a god. Those who didn't wake up in time died in their sleep.

But there was one thing that wasn't right. Ever the protective dragon Hiccup would've thought that Toothless would've woken up and chased the Mara away the second it entered the room – humans had trouble chasing them away but even a Night Fury should be able to make the Mara flee. But the big reptile was sleeping peacefully, like nothing had happened at all. This disturbed the boy more than anything else.

"Toothless?" Hiccup called softly. One earflap lifted and turned in the direction of the voice before flopping down. "Toothless," he tried again. This time the dragon stirred. He opened his eyes and peered at his rider in question.

"I'm sorry, just wanted to see if you were awake. Go back to sleep."

The dragon wanted nothing of that however and arose, making his way to the distressed boy. He crooned softly, inquiring his rider to see what the matter was.

"It's nothing, Toothless, just a bad dream. Actually it was a horrible one," Hiccup quietly admitted. The dread was still eminent in his chest, the fear simply not letting go. The dream itself was by now mostly forgotten, but the last moment of realisation that he wouldn't survive still made him shiver. It was a terrible feeling. It didn't matter that it was a dream; it still scared him, because he had almost not survived the real fight.

Toothless studied the boy closely with his big eyes. Hiccup knew that nothing got past the dragon when it concerned him. Gingerly he moved over to the bed and nuzzled Hiccup, giving small licks out of concern, trying his best to be of comfort.

"Stop that, you're covering me with spit," Hiccup weakly protested, not really making an effort of pushing the big head away like he usually would've done. Having someone there for him was just what he needed, and Toothless was there for him, spit and all. So instead of pushing Toothless away Hiccup drew him closer, wrapping his arms around the big scaled body as best he could. Toothless in return lifted a paw and rested it on Hiccup's back. For a long time none of them moved; Hiccup needed this more than he would like to admit and Toothless knew this.

Despite the dragon being the closest thing Hiccup had ever had he still couldn't help but feel awkward about showing emotions, being weak like this. Had it been his father Stoick would've tried to avoid it, not because he wouldn't, but because he didn't know how. How strange that a dragon seemed to know this better than his own father. Still Hiccup pulled away, adjusting his bad leg so it wouldn't hurt too much and made to lie down.

"Go to sleep, Toothless. One of us should at least have a night of decent sleep."

But he wouldn't have any of it. Instead of retreating to his spot Toothless grabbed his rider before stepping back to the stone, to Hiccups' amazement and spluttering protests. He realised very quickly what the dragon's intention was as he laid down, gently pulling Hiccup to the open wings. Not that the boy had much choice, it was either crawl back to the bed on one good leg or lie down with Toothless. It was too tempting. He quickly settled down, enjoying the closeness of his friend, knowing that he was loved and cared for.

"Thank you, Toothless," he murmured as great wings wrapped around them. Toothless gave a small purring rumble that resounded from his chest as his answer.

As they both settled down to sleep Hiccup let his thoughts wander for a bit. It was just so strange. A Mara can get through anything, no door or walls can keep them out. Yet he had a nightmare and had seemingly woken up by himself. Toothless hadn't registered anything; he was calm and dosing off, sensing no threat. Hiccup kept on looking through the darkness, looking for anything that was lurking in his room or tried to invade it.

He remembered when he was younger that he had many bad dreams. How often hadn't he woken up screaming, seeing things in the dark as he waited for the Mara to kill him? How often hadn't his mother come stampeding in, howling in the name of Thor for the creature to leave her son be? Then Hiccup had always been certain that he'd seen the dangerous being, disappearing into the night as the candles were lit, casting away the darkness that hid all bad things. Now he wasn't so sure.

Hiccup just wasn't sure what to think of this. If there had been no one there so give him his nightmare, what had caused it? Why had he had such a horrible, violent dream that it made him wake up in fear, positive that he was falling to his death?

Trying his best to settle down Hiccup knew that he wouldn't be able to sleep. So he watched out the window, gazing at the stars, wondering if perhaps, just perhaps, the Mara might be part of a bad dream, too.

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I suck at endings: I'm sorry! Hope it didn't sound too lame or anything :/ And I hope the story in general made sense.

On another note: Yes, people, I did. I wrote a 'Hiccup has a nightmare' story, knowing that there are plenty of them already. The only reason I did was because of some research I've been doing lately for a possible book I want to write. I just found it really interesting, knowing now that the Norse beliefs of a Mara coming into one's room and giving you nightmares were fierce back then. People would come into a room and find a Mara sitting on the unlucky one and chase them away – if possible. If they didn't, the person would die. And because of this I got to thinking of all the different stories I've come across here on ffn with HTTYD stories I thought to myself: I'll write a story based on those beliefs.

I found it to not be so difficult actually. I merely used the information I had and made my best attempt for the rest. This is not supposed to be like a 'proper' or 'legit' story, nor do I dismiss anyone else's story, far from it! I just wanted to share with you this little snippet of something that the Norse used to believe in. Besides, half the point was for Hiccup to wonder about the existence of a Mara. He is a smart kid, and like he thought to himself, he has a dragon beside him, how come there was no one there when he woke up from his nightmare?

But do leave me a little review with your thought on this story. I'm curious to know what you think of it ;) oh, and do favourite too if you really liked it!

So long – maybe I'll see you in another story :)


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